The Miami Heat have finally received a string of positive news after beating the Portland Trail Blazers by a franchise record-breaking 60 points Friday night, they get an uplifting injury update on star Duncan Robinson. Besides the dynamic three-point shooter, there are other players on the Heat's injury report for Sunday's game against the Washington Wizards.
Robinson has missed the last five games with a back issue specifically labeled as “left facet syndrome,” but now he has been upgraded to “probable” for the upcoming clash against the Wizards. The Heat's three-point shooting took an initial nose dive once he got hurt as the last time he played was on March 18 against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The other crucial injury update that is on the negative side is that Caleb Martin will be out for Sunday's contest with right ankle discomfort. Known as the Heat's “X Factor,” Martin has been the first player off the bench for the Heat as he provides a spark on the offensive side of the ball and is coming off of Friday where he only played nine minutes.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (ankle) and Nikola Jovic (knee) are on the injury report as well, but are labeled as available and probable so there isn't concern with them at the moment. The Heat are 40-33 with nine games left in the season as they are seventh in the Eastern Conference.
Other key Heat players on injury report like Kevin Love and Tyler Herro
Heat star Tyler Herro is once again out as it will be his 18th straight missed game as he is still dealing with “right foot medial tendinitis.” Kevin Love is once again available for the Heat as he was first at that status for Friday's game against the Blazers, but because the game was out of hand, Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra opted to not play him as he already mentioned before the outing that playing time could be sparse.
Spoelstra said before the contest that with a veteran like Love, it will be easy to bring him back in flow and right into the rotation as the primary backup for star Bam Adebayo. The long-time Heat head coach would also say to ClutchPoints that he's a “connector” and that the players that filled in for him have been impressive like Thomas Bryant and Nikola Jovic.
“He is a connector. I think this also has been important for our team to develop other connectors and we'd like to say that we need leadership at all levels, and it may look different for other guys, there might be smaller pockets of opportunities to lead depending on who the player is, but everybody can be a leader in the locker room and quite frankly, we need it right now,” Spoelstra continued. “While Kevin was out, Thomas [Bryant] really stepped up and provided really quality, winning minutes, and that's been really encouraging to see. Niko [Nikola Jovic] also has developed into more opportunities, not only starting in the front-court with Bam, but playing some of these games as our reserved five for pockets of the game and that's been good for us as well. But it'll be good to have Kevin available along with those guys.”